 Due to, first, a retention
of the very pleasant but haphazard original layout of the streets in the
area bounded by Main St. and Broadway, Temple St. and First St.; and,
secondly, the realignment and shuffling of some street names (as well as
the extinction of some streets) in this area in the late 1920s, it is not
easy for us to construe their arrangement in the period with which we are
concerned here, 1900-1920; even long-time Angelenos will be left blinking
when asked about "Jail St." or "Pound Cake Hill." We offer below a small
map of the area (the darkened areas represent streets which were in the
1920s considered prey to congestion, which Angelenos have been complaining
about in the downtown area since the 1890s) and a bird's-eye postcard of
the same area dating to approximately the mid-1930s. We show an extended
portion of downtown for the Reader's interest; the portion with which we
are concerned at present is near the middle of the map, about four-fifths
of the way towards the right. The Reader should bear in mind that this
area of Los Angeles, called overall "downtown" today, included as well
once upon a time a more suburban area on the "heights" of Los Angeles,
from Fort Hill just to the west of the old Plaza through Pound Cake Hill
(on which the County Courthouse was built), Bunker Hill, etc., the high
ground reaching diagonally from behind the Plaza to about Sixth and
Flowerthus such street names as "Hill" and "New High," and thus the
necessity for the funicular railways which will be mentioned subsequently.
Aside from the County Courthouse, the high ground tended to be an enclave
for "home life" (residences, schools, and the like), while the low ground
tended to be the governmental and business area.

 In this early 1930s postcard view
(and, broadly speaking, North is at the right, West at the top, etc.), the
tall building at center is the new (and present) City Hall (if you happen
to note "city hall" on the map above, don't be confused; the map is
indicating old City Hall, on Broadway, which we shall be visiting
soon), with Main Street on the near side of the building. Noting the green
triangle just to the left of City Hall's tower in the picture: The street
on its far side is New High Street, which we shall visit in a
moment. On the triangle's left is Franklin Street, alias Jail
Street. Formerly, on the near side of the triangle, the original
alignment of old Spring Street would run parallel to New High Street,
ending at Temple Street, which in this picture is the first street to the
right of City Hall. On the same block as City Hall, between City
Hall and Temple Street, is an old friend of ours, the International
Savings and Exchange Bank Building, which we saw at the beginning of our
walk down Spring Street; old Spring Street ran on the near side of
this. Across Temple Street, the large brick building which you see near
the right edge of the card is the Post Office, which we have also visited.
Mr. Temple's old bank was in the blank space between City Hall and the
Post Office. Finally, were this a present-day picture, the Hollywood/Santa
Ana Freeway would be cutting through the upper right-hand corner of this
view. But remove, now, the images in your mind of these newer buildings
and the layout in this picture as we return to an earlier time . . .

A glance at New High Street.

 New High Street was not sufficiently
glamorous to engage the attention of postcard photographers on its own
merits! We obtain some rare glimpses via enlargements of pieces of other
postcard views and photographs. In this view, the County Courthouse on
what's left of Pound Cake Hill dominates the center of the picture; the
unseen street below the slope we see immediately to the right of the
courthouse building would be New High Street, running parallel to the old
"diagonal" block of Spring Street, which is the street seen stretching
into the picture above the word "Nadeau" on the wall-sign in the
foreground (we are looking down on the "alley side" of the Hotel Nadeau at
Spring and First). At the left edge of the view, we see the tower of the
High School, the previous incarnation of which was on the location
of the Courthouse. Thus, the surroundings of New High
Street!

 Returning to a standpoint at ground
level two blocks north, at the junction of Temple, Main, and Spring, here
is the building at the northwest corner of New High Street and Temple
Street; that's the corner of the Post Office we see on the
right.

 If we were to turn right at that
corner, and go north on New High Street, we would be in the precinct
illustrated below, which is seen from the vantage point of the old Plaza.
The "obelisk" we see on the right of this view is actually the south
corner of the Plaza Church belltower. Nearest to us beyond the obelisk,
the houses we see are on New High Street. The next parallel street farther
is Buena Vista Street, once known as Justicia Street. Temple Street would
be just beyond the farthest structure we see at upper
left.

 We return to the corner of New High
Street and Temple Street, and see the whole court house from that corner,
with the small old Hall of Records immediately to its left. New
High Street comes into the picture from the left; Temple Street peeks in
at the view's lower right-hand corner. Note the size of the palm trees on
either side of the steps up to the building.

 The same view just a few years
later: The part of New High Street fronting the County Court House and the
new and gigantic Hall of Records (the latter being the only recognizable
remaining building in our 1930s view above) which replaced the Jail, the
perspective being from above the corner of New High St. and Temple St.,
looking southwest. One finds in trying to date postcards of the Court
House that one of the best clues is the size of the two palm trees
flanking the steps up. The County Court House was built on a rise known to
the pioneers as Pound Cake Hill. From the top of the hill, in the
mid-1800s, a look south was able to provide the viewer with the
information that the horse-drawn stage from San Pedro was on its way via
San Pedro Street, as the cloud of dust the stage rose far in the distance
would be evident long long before the arrival of the
coach.

 Just then, as I was gazing
abstractly at the Court House, I noticed young Frederick Johan strolling
in one door. I leapt after him, and entered just in time to hear him
asking a clerk if he could be let in to look up close at the mechanisms of
the clock in the tower. The clerk looked at him over his glasses, adjusted
his sleeve garters, put his pencil down, and pointed at the clock on the
wall behind him. "That's the closest you'll come to any clock in
this building, young man," he said, rather sternly, and with a
sharp nod. I collared FJ and dragged him outside again. [Clock shown here,
from the collection of Jim Robinson of Texas, is an actual clock from the
old Court House; the name "Nordlinger" on its face refers to an old
well-known jeweler's shop located back on Main St.]

 The Court House was on the southwest
corner of Temple and New High; in this much-enlarged excerpt from another
postcard, we seethrough the Court House's palm treesthe row of
buildings on New High Street at the southeast corner, as well as
(further into the picture) a tiny bit of the adjacent block of Spring
Street around the latter's junction with Court Street and the quondam
Market Street. This area is one of the historically-richest in downtown
L.A.; the city's earlier court house was at this point of junction, its
building reused from having originally been the city
market.

 We descend to ground level at Temple
and New High, where it is easy to see the upward slope of Temple off to
the right, while New High remains level towards the left. Note the small
red brick building (the old Hall of Records) immediately to the
left of the Court House.

 Papa pointed out the piece of
sculpture along the steps. "Ja, dere is alvays some lyin' at any court
house. But I didn't tink dey would build a statue to
it."

 We walk half a block south on New
High Street, during which the small red brick building has been replaced
by the new Hall of Records. This substantial building persisted long after
all of its neighbors had been demolished, and was the last building in
downtown Los Angeles to show the old alignment, being at an angle to all
newer buildings. At left, we see west up Franklin Street to Broadway. At
the far right is the County Jail building on Temple
Street.

 A close-up of the Title Insurance &
Trust Company Building, at the north-west corner of New High and Franklin
streets. Again, we see west up Franklin to Broadway and across to the
slope where the Court Flight funicular provides service from the heights
of Bunker Hill's eastern extremity down to Broadway... as we shall see up
close in our next episode.

 In another stray, much-enlarged, and
unsatisfyingly blurry snippet from another view, we see what is south
across Franklin from the Title Insurance & Trust Buildingthe dark
and unostentatious dead end of New High Street. No wonder the street did
not attract postcard photographers!

 We walk west on Temple towards
Broadway. In the scene below, we see the north face of the Court House and
the buildings across the street along Temple.

 In this older view, from a
standpoint of the hill above Broadway and First, we look north past the
Court House to the area around Buena Vista Street as it approaches its
southern terminus at Temple Street. This modest residential neighborhood
would soon be replaced by urban buildings. Also soon to be replaced would
be the palm tree in front of the Court House entryway. The bronze statue
of Angeleno lawyer and political figure Stephen M. White, which cost about
$25,000, the amount being raised by public contribution rather than at
civic expense, and which was unveiled December 11, 1908, would be sited
there; the palm tree was moved, not cut down.

 Close by, the next street north,
parallel to Temple Street, is California Street, the former Sand Street.
The address of this fine boarding house is 498 California Street, and it
had its moment of drama in 1902, as the Los Angeles Times of
January 10, 1902, tells us: "An unknown enemy, whose motive is
mysterious, made an almost successful attempt to poison the family of F.O.
McKee of No. 498 California street Sunday by putting poison in the milk
which had been left at the house by a dairyman. That the infant of Mr. and
Mrs. McKee was not a victim is due only to the fact that the mother took a
swallow of the poisoned milk before giving it to her babe, and was herself
made violently ill. [...] Sunday afternoon the family was not at home,
and about 2 o'clock neighbors saw the dairyman leave three bottles of
milk on the front porch. Nothing was thought of this at the time, but
someone noticed particularly that three bottles were left and later, while
passing the place, saw that one was missing, although the family had not
returned. Early Monday morning Mrs. McKee took some of the milk to prepare
it for her baby. To see whether it was sweet, she drank a little from the
bottle in which the dairyman had delivered it. She instantly detected a
peculiar taste and a moment later felt a burning sensation in her mouth
and throat. Soon afterward she became very ill, with all the symptoms of
poisoning. [...] The milk had contained a caustic poison which severely
burned her mouth, and even now she is unable to take solid foods. The
poison could not have been in anything except the milk, for Mrs. McKee had
taken nothing else. McKee immediately reported to the detectives. He says
he received little satisfaction there, the officers not offering to
investigate, or, if they intended to do so, giving him no intimation that
such was their intention. He was told to consult the Milk Inspector.
[...]" On hearing this story, Mother frowned. "I very much doubt," said
she, "that the Milk Inspector has his finger on the pulse of the local
baby poisoners!"

A Walk south down Broadway (part
1).

 Having walked the sloping block up
Temple from New High Street to Broadway, our travelers begin their survey
of Broadway looking south from atop the entrance to the Broadway tunnel
penetrating Fort Hill. Behind is the intersection with California St.;
half a block ahead is the intersection with Temple Street. Immediately to
our left, we see how the approach to the tunnel has been carved into the
hill. Ahead, we see coming up on our left the western face of the County
Court House; mistily and vaguely in the distance behind the court house
is the Union Trust Building on Spring; a few blocks ahead on Broadway is
the tower of the old City Hall. Note the tower of the court house; we will
be ascending it in a momentat least, we men will be the ladies
refuse, absolutely refuse, to climb to the top of any more buildings with
the children in hand!

 We see a few buildings on
the west side of Broadway just south of its corner with
Temple.

 We look at the court house
from the corner of Temple and Broadway, noting again the slope of Temple
to the leftwhich the ladies protest as the most tiresome blocklong
walk ever taken in the history of Man, nothing like it in
Nebraskaand we note how the new Hall of Records broods over and
enshadows the south wing of the court house. After all of the cement and
stonework of New High Street, Spring, and Main, the open expanse of grass
around the court house is refreshing and welcome.

 Several of us ascend the court house
tower. (I whispered to young Frederick Johan, "Please leave the
clerks alone!" as we entered the building.) We look to the north.
Prominent is the high school a few blocks away; we will visit it in just a
few days. Nearer at hand is the Broadway tunnel which was our
vantage-point a few minutes ago. We see that north, and west, is the
residential district, on Los Angeles' higher ground. The high school, and
the houses above the tunnel, are on Fort Hill, which we previously saw
from another angle rising behind the old church at the Plaza. Formerly,
Broadway was called "Fort Street"; old timers bitterly protested the name
change as repudiating an important part of the city's
heritage.

 Turning more towards the west, we
see the high school presiding over more single family homes and some
apartment houses. At mid-left, we get a glimpse of perhaps fifteen or
twenty feet of Hill Street, the next parallel artery west of
Broadway.

 Looking a bit more to the west, we
see, at the left, more of the residential area atop Bunker Hill. This is
an early view; the tower of the High School has not been roofed. Los
Angeles' first High School can also be seen at mid-center, just to
the right of the clump of trees; it was moved to that location from the
site on which we take in the view, the top of Pound Cake Hill where the
Court House was built. (It will help Modernity orient itself by knowing
that the Hollywood Freeway passes from the lower right-hand corner of this
view to a little below center at the left margin.)

 Now, to the southwest, the central
latitude of the view showing the area in which Hill and Olive streets meet
First St. The corner of Broadway and First is just out of view a little
below left center.

 Finally, we turn to the south, and
see not only the length of Broadway, which we will travel down shortly,
but also the broad flat expanse of the coastal plain. Yes, most certainly,
the early citizens could have seen the dust of coaches coming towards Los
Angeles from San Pedro to the south!as well as the ocean itself, and
Santa Catalina Island, on a clear day.